I’ve had a lot of fun with the Samsung SGH-i620. And no, it’s no officially called the BlackJack Slider, but it is truly worthy of that name. Here’s a summary of how I feel about it.

I love

1. The form factor. There’s something quite satisfying about using the slider on this phone. The sliding action is smooth and spring assisted, and you can use it to end and answer calls.

2. Heat-sensitive buttons. Never have we seen a Windows Mobile phone with heat sensitive buttons, until the i620. The sensitivity was prefect, and I hope that we see more WM devices with heat-sensitive buttons.

3. Rotary scroll wheel. The center-placed rotary scroll wheel is a brilliant idea. It’s easy to use for right or left handed users, the speed is fast but not too fast, and it’s a space saver by not having to have a side scroll wheel also.

I hate

1. No GSM850 band. For some of us in the US, lack of the GSM850 band means that this phone won’t work over a UMTS network. That’s a killer.

2. Flat keyboard keys. In order to make the screen slide over the keyboard, Samsung had to flatten the keys of the keyboard. This makes them a bit difficult to use, even after a few weeks of usage.

3. Low speaker volume. Even at maximum volume, I had trouble hearing callers many times when using the handset. The speakerphone provided louder audio, but not as loud as the BlackJack.